MENTONE – It may not have been as pretty or dominating as some in attendance expected, but the Redlands East Valley High School girls’ volleyball team did what they do best this time of year – win.

Kicking off their postseason run with a home game against La Salle High School in the second round of the CIF-SS Division II-AA playoffs, the Wildcats turned in a ho-hum three-game sweep, 25-15, 25-21, 25-15, Thursday night.

REV (28-3, 14-0 Citrus Belt League) came into the match as the two-time defending CIF-SS champions, while La Salle barely made it into the playoffs as the No. 3 team out of the Del Rey League, but play was surprisingly close in all three games.

“It was hard to tell what kind of team they were,” said REV head coach Tricia Vansant, who scouted La Salle on Tuesday as the Wildcats drew a first-round bye. “But I did think they played better than I thought they would. We haven’t played a real competitive match in awhile, so this was good for us.”

The Wildcats looked the part of the No. 1-overall seed in Division II-AA at the start, sprinting out to a 5-0 lead before the crowd had even settled in.

Kills from junior outside hitter Krista Vansant and senior right side Danielle Newcombe were followed by an ace from senior setter Johnna Fouch and consecutive errors on La Salle.

The lead would grow to 11-4 and 22-10 before La Salle made a mini run to cut it the deficit to nine following a service error on Vansant. But a kill off a Fouch back set by sophomore middle blocker Alyssa Mason gave the Wildcats game point and a La Salle shot into the net followed.

Game two was a back-and-forth affair with La Salle keeping the score close throughout. A three-point Wildcat run, courtesy of a Mason kill, a double block by Mason and junior outside hitter Brianna Potter and a Potter ace, gave REV a 20-16 cushion.

Two errors allowed La Salle to close to within 21-20 but Vansant led a 4-1 run to cap the game, finishing it off with a cross-court smash.

“I think it took us a little time to get going,” Newcombe said. “We didn’t want to underestimate them and once we saw what they were doing and how they were beating us, we just had to make the adjustments.”

REV left no doubt in the third game, jumping out to a 16-4 lead before cruising to the three-game sweep.

Vansant finished with a team-high 17 kills while Mason added 14 of her own to go along with three solo blocks. Newcombe tallied six kills, senior setter Johnna Fouch posted 32 assists and senior libero Kyla Oropeza put up an impressive 24 digs in the victory.

“Kyla was amazing for us tonight,” said Coach Vansant. “I was happy with our play for the most part but we could have been better. We need to work on our positioning defensively and we need to be better blocking. We should have touched more balls.”

With the win, REV moves on to the quarterfinals, where they will face the winner of South Hills and Riverside Poly at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14.

If it is South Hills, the Wildcats will hit the road. If it is Riverside Poly, REV will host.

“I think we’d rather play Riverside Poly, just because we have already played them this year,” Krista Vansant said. “But it doesn’t really matter. We know any team we face is going to be tough. This is the time of year that we play for.”